I came to executive coaching following a 30 + year career leading large legal teams and, for the past 11 years, served as the Chief Legal Officer of a company that journeyed from the principal subsidiary of a giant multinational corporation to a publicly-traded Fortune 500 company.

Along the way, I have coached hundreds of professionals from all types of organizations with a myriad of personal and professional stories and achieved great results in their elevated self-confidence, overall fulfillment, and success.

I have been particularly helpful coaching professionals from underrepresented backgrounds who are new to organizations, may not have extensive experience working in complex institutions or simply have a different perspective on life than others seated around the power table. Good coaching is not some exercise that periodically rears its head from a generic “how-to” playbook at annual reviews or career transitions. To be meaningful, coaching must be suited to the individual, organization, and ongoing real-life experiences. It also must be highly confidential and rest on a foundation of understanding, trust and candor. I think of this as Context Coaching.

Context Coaching has been so effective because it probes and develops practical techniques to navigate real-life issues such as:

• Who has the power?
• What are the unwritten rules?
• How to best exert influence?
• What is holding you back?
• Who are potential allies?
• How do you adjust your personal style to be more effective and how do you influence others to adapt to your style?
• What tactics work with the CEO but not peers or teams?
• When to stand up or stand down on a matter?

Through positive feedback I appreciate and live by the important qualities to have as a coach–be a good listener, objective but compassionate, apply a real-world understanding of complex organizations and trends, have thoughtful and actionable insights, and communicate in a forthright manner. I enjoy the process of connecting with people from different backgrounds and find it enormously rewarding to play a role in the professional growth and successes of others.